Explosion Hits Key Bridge Used by Military in Central Russia, Kyiv Confirms

Russian President Vladimir Putin (C), accompanied by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu (L), at the Luzhsky training ground in the Leningrad region on September 18, 2017. Ukraine said it blew up a key bridge used by the Russian military in Russia’s Samara region on Monday.

Ukraine said it blew up a key bridge used by the Russian military in Russia’s Samara region on Monday.

The railway bridge over the Chapaevka river in Samara was struck at about 5 a.m. on Monday, causing rail traffic in the region to be suspended, local authorities told state-run news agency Tass.

“About 5 o’clock in the morning, there was a bang on the railway bridge over the Chapaevka river. Train traffic on the bridge was suspended,” operational services said.

The incident marks the latest in a number of railway attacks in Russia throughout the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In June last year, an explosion rocked a railway line in Crimea’s Feodosia region, and a month earlier, a blast suspended rail traffic between Simferopol, the capital of annexed Crimea, and Sevastopol.

The Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) said in a post on Telegram on Monday that it was behind the attack.

“In Russia, a railway bridge was blown up – the movement of trains was paralyzed,” the GUR said.

“The aggressor state used the railway branch for transporting military cargo, including ammunition produced by the Polimer company in the city of Chapaevsk, Samara Oblast. Due to the nature of the damage to the railway bridge, it will be out of service for a long time.”

The GUR added that the bridge was damaged “by detonation of its power structures.”

No casualties were reported. Newsweek has contacted Russia’s Foreign Ministry for comment by email.

Russian Telegram channel Baza, which is linked to Russia’s security services, said that the explosion damaged the bridge’s metal structure and its barrier. It added that the bridge’s concrete support was not damaged in the explosion.

Just weeks into the war in Ukraine, four students opposed to the conflict sabotaged railways in the country. Four Russian and foreign students between the ages of 17 and 18 were arrested in the city of Ufa in March 2022 and were accused of organizing a terrorist act.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the time backed the death penalty being reinstated in Russia in response. Writing on his Telegram channel, he called the defendants “monsters” and said that, during World War II, “saboteurs” were shot.

“There was only one verdict for such scoundrels; execution without trial or investigation. Right at the crime scene,” Medvedev wrote.

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